Rev. Dr. Herman Ridderbos, one of the foremost developers of the redemptive-historical approach to Biblical theology, a hallmark of Westminster Theological Seminary, died 8 March, having celebrated his 98th birthday on 13 March. Among his more widely distributed writings were “Redemptive History and the New Testament Scriptures,” “Paul and Jesus,” and “Paul: An Outline of His Theology.” Reportedly Ned Stonehouse once said this of Ridderbos: “Wherever the Dutch language is read Professor Herman Ridderbos is recognized as an outstanding New Testament scholar and theologian . . .”
[HT: Jack Collins]
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
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10 comments:
One of the true greats. Also one of the top 3 or 4 shaping authors in my life. Thanks, Sean, for a great blog!
John
Looks like Prof. Collins reads my blog. Almost all of his first sentence was lifted straight from my post breaking the news of Ridderbos's death (first blog post about it in English, according to both Technorati and Google Blogsearch). I got the news from Dr. Richard Gaffin, Jr. Ah, well, Dr. Collins doesn't have a blog (as far as I know) so I guess he had no hat to tip, eh? ;-)
Much more importantly, I hope that this news, sad as it is, will broaden Ridderbos's reading audience.
I know Dr. Ridderbos is known for his work in Biblical Theology, but does anybody have any idea of how he reacted to the anti-christian secularist culture that was developing in Netherlands. I understand Dr. Ridderbos isn't exactly Bavinck or Kuyper, but just curious how a good reformed theologian after them reacted to the culture around him.
I recently wrote a post about Ridderbos that you might find helpful: Herman Nicolaas Ridderbos.
Philip's post (linked in comment above) has a lot of great quotes!
correction:
Ridderbos was born on 13 February 1909, and died 8 March 2007.
in answer to the anonymous question:
He was active in (Kuyper's) Anti-Revolutionary Party, which continues in the present day under the name "Christian Union" political party
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChristianUnion
As a student at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia, Ridderbos's work gave me a whole new approach to how to read Scripture that gave me a more solid approach than dispensationalism.
Richard L. Lindberg
Pottstown, PA
Actually, Dr. Jack Collins forwarded the press release sent by the Presbyterian news service of the Christian Observer. So, I wasn't sure who to credit there...but if someone is to blame for plagarism, it isn't Dr. Collins!! sml
Well then, my apologies. I just thought it was uncanny that the opening sentence almost exactly matched mine. Perhaps it was just an obvious thing to say...or maybe I have a calling to write press releases. I'll have to check that with my faculty advisor at my seminary ;-)
BTW...off topic...thought I would let you know that your book On Being Presbyterian was one of our topsellers at Westminster Bookstore (www.wtsbooks.com) in the past year!
I have his commentaries on Romans and Matthew in Dutch if anyone can translate them...
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